Conventionally, various sliding power supply devices have been proposed for constantly supplying power to an electric component and an accessory and such provided in a sliding seat of an automobile, for example.
For example, Patent Literature 1 (not shown) discloses a long slide-type sliding power supply device, wherein a wiring harness is wired in a horizontally-long case in an extra length absorbable fashion by bending the wiring harness in a substantially U-like or J-like shape, wherein the wiring harness is supported by a harness support provided in the case to prevent droop or curve of the wiring harness in the case, wherein a slider is slidably engaged to a slit provided at one side of the case, and wherein one end side of the wiring harness is lead out from the slider and connector connected to a sliding structure such as a sliding door or a sliding seat, and the other end side of the wiring harness is lead out from an opening at the other side of the case and connector connected to a fixed structure such as a vehicle body or a vehicle floor.
Patent Literature 2 discloses a sliding power supply device, a similar example of which is shown in FIG. 7. Although an entire length of this sliding power supply device 31 is shorter than the sliding power supply device disclosed in Patent Literature 1, it is for the long slide as well. In FIG. 7, for convenience, a movable portion of the sliding power supply device 31 at front and back movement ends is indicated by a solid line, respectively (in fact, one is indicated by a solid line and the other is indicated by a two-dot chain line).
The sliding power supply device 31 includes a horizontally-long case 32 made of metal, a slider 34 which is passing through a slit 33 provided at an upper portion of the case 32 and which is slidably engaged to a rail (not shown) provided at a bottom portion of the case 32, a movable block 36 fixed to an outer exposed portion of the slider 34, a fixation portion (i.e. a bracket) 35 provided to the movable block 36, and a wiring harness (not shown) which is wired in the case 32 in an extra length absorbable fashion by bending the wiring harness in a substantially U-like or J-like shape and which has one end side fixed to the slider 34 and the other end side fixed to the case 32.
The one end side portion of the wiring harness is passed through the slit 33 of the case 32 and lead out from the slider 34 toward a sliding seat (not shown) and connected to an electric component or an accessory of the sliding seat. The other end side portion of the wiring harness is lead out from a back opening 37 of the case 32 to a vehicle floor side and connected to a wiring harness (not shown) of a power source side.
The slit 33 of the case 32 is narrowed by a molding 38 made of synthetic resin to prevent a foreign object and such from entering into the case 32. The case 32 is disposed on the vehicle floor and is covered and hidden by a mat (not shown). An upper wall (i.e. an upper case) of the case 32 is formed into a concavo-convex shape to increase the rigidity against pushing by a passenger's foot and such. The fixation portion 35 of the movable block 36 is fixed to the sliding seat by thread fastening and such.
When the sliding seat is moved forward to a foremost position, the fixation portion 35 is located at a frontend side of the case 32, and when the sliding seat is moved backward to a backmost position, the fixation portion 35 is located at a backend side of the case 32. In FIG. 7, a reference sign L7 denotes the horizontal movement distance in a front-back direction of the fixation portion 35, i.e. the slide stroke (i.e. the slide amount) of the slider 34, and a reference sign L8 denotes the entire length of the case 32.
Furthermore, Patent Literature 3 (not shown) discloses separately forming a long slider movement portion and a short harness housing portion and forming a case by parallelly-connecting frontends of the long slider movement portion and the short harness housing portion by a semi-circular guide member, fixing one side of a wiring harness to a slider disposed to the slider movement portion, folding the other side of the wiring harness in a substantially U-like fashion and housing it in the harness housing portion, fixing the slider to the sliding seat, and with the movement of the slider (i.e. the seat), absorbing an extra length of the wiring harness by extending and contracting the wiring harness in the harness housing portion. A seat guide rail for sliding a seat mounting portion is provided adjacent to and in parallel to the slider movement portion.